001Good evening. I'd like to call the regularly scheduled board meeting for May 12th, 2025 to order. Call the role, please. Mr. Ferguson, here. Mrs. Washington, present. Dr. Ballard, here. Mrs. Nazario, here. Mr. Churchill here. If you'd all ple please rise for the pledge. The Southw Middle School group has a track meet tonight, so they won't be here. So with that, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Do we have any visitors? No, because they're not here. First hearing of the public. Enter and sign in, please, if you would. Okay. I would entertain a motion to amend or okay the minutes from the May 1st special board meeting. Support. Roll call, please.
002Mr. Sergil, yes. Mrs. Washington, yes. Mr. Ferguson, yes. Dr. Valor, yes. Mrs. Nazario, yes. Any old business to attend, too? Yes. I would like to ask um if you're prepared um an update on the behavior meetings. Uh we were going to do a joint thing because I don't want to speak for the entire group. I'm looking at Julie now. Um but um I think we made my personal opinion we made a lot of progress identified a lot of obstacles um identified the fact that we have and jump in Julie if I'm I'm going to that we have a lot of resources that we did not provide easy access to. So the the the plan right now is to get a flowchart um um coach our teachers and staff members more on panorama and how to
003in um initiate processes. We have another meeting Thursday right? Yeah. Thursday this week. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Reports and recommendations of the treasurer. I have item 8.01 for approval. Support. Roll call, please. Mrs. Washington, yes. Dr. Ballard? Yes. Mr. Ferguson? Yes. Mrs. Nazario? Yes. Mr. Sturgil? Yes. It's always a pleasure to see all that those donations. another 12 on the agenda. With that reports and recommendations of the superintendent personnel matters, I will defer to uh Raj May over there to give us a shout out. Well, we just got some fantastic news this afternoon. Um so we have been recognized for the first time ever as uh a recipient of the NAM award which is uh given by the National Association of Music Merchants as one of the 935 school districts in the country
004um that are a best community in the nation for music education. So um this is our first time winning it. Yep. I want to Yep. Want to thank um Angelo Cortica. He'll be at our next board meeting to talk in greater detail about it. took the lead on this and our music team both uh vocal and instrumental. Uh but just very briefly from the release uh the the program the award recognizes rather and celebrates outstanding efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, students and community leaders who have made music education part of a well-rounded education. Designations are made to districts and schools that demonstrate an exceptionally high commitment to and access to music education. Um Oberlin um also received uh the award for the 13th consecutive year and Avon received the award this year for the second
005year and uh we joined that list in Lorraine County as award recipients. So yeah, really really really exciting and extremely proud of the work that our um music staff have done, our families have done, the larger community has done, our students are just amazing. Absolutely. Yeah. So really really exciting moment. I think I speak for the board when I say that thank you for leading that without a doubt. Yep. 100%. We appreciate it. You got a great great team. Excellent. Thank you. Excuse me. I'd like to first of all before I make my recommendations, I'd like to pull 9.04 um off and that's a position that uh based on the negotiated negotiated agreement with that union. Um we have to take board action to not fill a position and I've had requests from board members
006for more information. So we can meet next time in executive session and get the questions that you have answered. Uh before we proceed, so like the board to consider for approval 9.01 to 9.07 again with the removal of 9.04. Discussion. Um I would like to uh just say I'm happy to see McKenzie uh Barlow on uh the agenda. She was a Lady Titan and she's pretty amazing. Love her. And uh Coach Thompson is on here as well and uh happy to see him back. Yes, he's been in and out for the my my tenure is here, but now he has stabilized himself in a teaching position, which is what he's always wanted. Awesome. Yes. And Ross, if you could the names. Yeah. You mind if I read the names and where everyone's going? So, we're
007really excited just with Yeah. the quality of people that we're bringing in. So, Mackenzie Baraclaw will be teaching fifth grade at Garfield. Jasmine Cochran will be first grade at Garfield. Julie Cook will be teaching preschool at Hawthorne. Sean Coglin, fourth grade at Frankosinto. Alexis Elbert, third grade, Steven Dunnness. Alexis, are you here tonight? Is Alexis here? Um, Grace Evans will be teaching kindergarten at Tony Morrison. Megan Foot, music at GJW. There's Megan. Megan, welcome. Congratulations. Glad to have you here. Thank you for coming tonight. A lot of awesome stuff going on with music. That time is great to be here. Uh Kevin Goodwin will be teaching special education at Palm. Cara Croucher be teaching preschool at Admiral King. Emily uh Matakovich will be teaching third grade at Steven Dhanas. Lorie Pyers Goodwin special education at
008Palm. Kina Ratiff, fifth grade at Hawthorne. Cole Ramirez, fifth grade at Admiral King. Ta Rogers, second grade at Tony Morrison. Sophia Schneider will be a speech and language pathologist across the district. Justin Susanar be teaching special education at Lorraine High. Carla Tomlin will be teaching special ed at Larkmore. Adam Thompson, special education at Longfellow. Yanedi Vargas, kindergarten at Washington. Hannah Viea, special education at Helensteiner Rice. Melody Walker, second grade at Hawthorne. And Miranda Whams, third grade at Frankosinto. Again, to all of you, welcome to the family. Uh some of you are repeat offenders. A couple names on there. People moved away and came back. And again, I think as a as a school district, I think that's just an incredible compliment. Uh people had a choice to go anywhere. And the Goodwins, for example, were
009in Korea uh for some years and then Panama for some years and found their way back home. So again, to all of you, welcome. I'd like to also say that with the retirements listed in 9.02, know too we are losing some good people but it was only fair that we reopened that and gave them the opportunity to uh accept the uh incentive. Anything else? Uh how do you entertain a motion? So move support. Roll call, please. Mr. Sturgil? Yes. Mrs. Washington? Yes. Mr. Ferguson? Yes. Dr. Ballard? Yes. Mrs. Nazario? Yes. I like the board to consider for approval uh items 10.01 to 10.18 operations matters. So move support. Roll call, please. Dr. Ballard. Yes. Mr. Sturgil. Yes. Mr. Ferguson. Yes. Mrs. Washington. Yes. Mrs. Hazario. Yes. And I'd like for Ross to put up uh
010just a few slides uh to discuss uh the the change in student day. Yeah, that was four, right? Give or take. There ain't no take. We know that. Uh you want me to walk through? You want to? Yeah. So, just where where we've left off and and where we are now. um you know the background with um with our surveys and what we've learned and studying other school districts. So to the point where we are now um our current instructional time at the elementary level is 6 hours and 15 minutes. And what we're proposing is to increase that to 6 hours and 45 minutes. And again, you could see we are one of the shorter um school districts for instructional time when our direct neighbors and with community and private schools uh within the city.
011Uh this would get us very much in line with uh other school districts and and community school charter schools and uh private schools in the area. At the middle school, we do have the Yeah. Addition is those are also schools that are in our new athletic conference as well. So just so we frame the graph. Yep. Yeah. Thank you. So yeah, again we're comparing against those immediately um surrounding us. So, who we directly compete with for students, uh, some of the larger charter schools in the city, uh, two of the parochial schools, and then our new athletic conference. Well, I think that one of the questions to ask is what about preschool from are we apples to apples there or where is that? And actually, we took preschool off right now. The only thing we're
012recommending is K through 12 as we continue to learn more about preschool. Thank you. Yeah. Uh for middle school, we currently have the shortest instructional time. When we compare, what we're proposing is to add 15 minutes to the instructional day. And that allows us to maintain the um elective opportunities that we have in middle school and meet the high dosage tutoring requirement that will be coming our way, not just for us, but for all school districts in the state. Um for students in sixth grade next year, the following year, seventh grade, following year after that, eighth grade. And then for high school, we obviously have talked about the high school schedule before. Um you saw that several months ago. Um the increase of 5 minutes per day. We're pretty comparable to begin with it. It
013moves the needle just a tiny bit. Uh what this allows us to do is run the master schedule and um Titan news um as part of our part of our day. So small adjustment at high school. And from a time sense, this is what we're proposing. So from when the buses would arrive to when instruction would begin to when students would dismiss and then the difference in minutes. And so if we just work at high school across, we'd be pushing the day back 10 minutes. So buses would arrive at 7:20 instead of 7:10. Instruction would begin at 7:35 instead of 7:25. And then students would dismiss at 2:30. So 5 minutes difference for the high school day. at the middle level, middle school level, buses um would arrive at um 8:30 as opposed to 8:45
014and instruction would start at 8:45 as opposed to 9:00. And then dismissal would stay the same at 3:30. So an additional 15 minutes per day. And then at the elementary level, the start time would stay the same. So buses would still arrive at 8:00. Instruction would still begin at 8:15. Students would now dismiss at 3:00. So 30 minutes per day. And this allows us to make sure we can still run transportation. Uh we need 30 minutes between. Currently, we only have 15 minutes between when the high school dismisses it. Uh and then the elementary dismisses. So 215 for high school, 2:30 for elementary. So that'll clean that up a little bit um as well. So then just with the adjustments at the elementary level, it does add 87 hours of instructional time over the course
015of the school year, which is the equivalent of of 13.9 additional days. and then uh of instructional time. And then middle school, it's the equivalent of 43 and a half additional hours um or 6.7 additional days per year. Our teacher contracted time stays the same. We're not lengthening teacher contra contract time. Still 7 hours and 35 minutes. It's just what we do with that time, you know, during the day that we're proposing. And again, I would apologize for the confusion um in the process that we went through. And I asked Christian to send something out saying we're moving to this um after meeting and talking to board members. Uh but we agreed that it's appropriate with our history. I think technically it's just a superintendent's job to to make an assignment um what happens during
016the school day. But we've had um quite a journey in my 10 years here off and on. Um and I think it's important for us not to share the blame uh but to make sure that um we're all on the same page moving forward. So that's the the confusion was purely my fault. So I'd like to recommend the board approved item 11.01. 01 other matters discussion um I have a question um it doesn't sort of what happens inside of these hours we had that email that we received from the uh student from the high school um if the vote is no um does that lock you out of what the possibilities at the high school is the question. No, I think that students uh had a one-on-one. I talked to a relative who works at
017the high school and he said that a relative of mine who works at the high school and he said that he had met with her. Yeah, we looked we looked at at that student's particular schedule and she absolutely can get the classes that she needs. Um and so uh Miss Cheers will be meeting with her. Oh, we're talking um I don't even remember now in the next couple days. Um but to walk through and just I believe I'm meeting her too. Yeah. So we'll And again, if kids have questions or talking to the cameras and the community, reach out. We love to hear from you. We want to work with you if there's stuff you need. Um Sher, please. I I think it's important too when we start talking about high school scheduling, there are
018always times where students had to make choices. um this isn't different. The difference is um people are looking at it now because they may have had a certain thought of how it would work out prior to these changes. And I think that's our responsibility uh Miss Cheers and her team responsibility uh to help the students understand um that they will get um majority of the things that they wanted as in years past. And then there's I think room for some creativity too. you don't know what the the actual needs are until you really drill down to the individual pieces. Um I was double booked but I know there's also meeting with counselors uh just to talk about how we walk students through um the changes students and their families and that's an important piece too.
019This is an opportunity to really galvanize the relationship between uh counselor student and home so that the parents can be informed too because I know myself as a 16 17 year old I may have brought home information and not known all the intricacies behind the scene. It's our job to help close that gap a little bit too. So I I you just want to emphasize that you know we've always had choices. No one's ever necessarily, not nobody, but there's always been times where I want to do all of this, the day is this, how do we plan this out? And it's even more so now because we've added so many more course offerings. So now there's a lot right that was my point. It's like we have way more offerings now, right? Yeah. And it's
020we we are incredibly unique and have a a tremendous strength in that you can graduate with an associates degree and with career tech credentials and now take a number of really interesting electives. And so uh for this particular student and we looked at a couple of others, what they requested with their electives were really great choices. And if you want to graduate with an associates degree and career tech credentials, you can't take absolutely everything. And we are incredibly fortunate to be able to offer a the an early college to graduate with an associates degree, career tech on our campus, so you have access to everything and extracurriculars afterwards in a really convenient place and a number of now really compelling electives. Um, so we talked about exactly Michael's point about just the continuing dialogue with
021our students, with our families that that you have more options now than you've ever had, um, as a high school student. And I think there's one more important point, um, you know, having been in a couple different districts for a little short amount of time, what I also noticed is when we don't have to focus so much on credit recovery, uh, we could spend time focusing on enrichment. Uh so as we continue to grow as a district and we have less need for credit recovery then students will have an opportunity to potentially take um some acceleration in the summer. We've um talked with our staff over the last four years uh about the importance of seeing students assets of putting them in a position where we're talking about acceleration and not talking so much about
022uh remediation and and intervention. to get things right the first time, which is a partnership. So, I'm not placing blame on one side or the other. It is a partnership. Partnership to show up, partnership to make sure that, you know, we're getting the tier one instruction um right the first time around. And then we have a less likelihood of having to have um remediation. And to me, like that's a part of of this puzzle that's oftentimes not talked about um because we do so much remediation in the summer to give our students the opportunities, those second chances that they need. And that's not a fault of the of of the system, but you know, if we want to do all things, then something's got to give. And to me, like the one thing that, you
023know, we couldn't help our students control is getting credits the first time around and not in a recovery mode. Thank you. I still have I'm very glad with the schedule that we have are waiting on preschool. We listen to the experts who I will always say we're not the experts of a classroom because we're not in the classroom. No one at this table has been in the classroom for many of years if been at the classroom at all. So we should be listening to them. So I'm glad we did with preschool. Our behavior is still bad. Our attendance is still not great. I have asked if we can just hold off one year on this. You're saying we still don't have a behavior plan. What's going to happen? We're still I don't say we don't
024Well, we haven't got it. We haven't seen it. Teachers haven't got it. We don't know what it's like in the district. Parents, nobody. Um we don't know for sure if it's going to work. So, we're going to put kids in elementary for 30 more minutes into a classroom when historically data shows as the day goes on, behaviors get worse. Pretty pretty his data does show that. So, we're going to have them in classes for longer. We don't know for sure about behavior plans yet, what they look like. Um, attendance is still a problem. Um, we've tried things. It's still not working. So, kids are going to miss out. If they're missing one day, now they're going to miss an extra 30 minutes for that day. So, if they miss 15 days, they're going to miss
025extra time. So, if we could come up with better attendance, another different initiative to try for attendance. I guess that's still my problem is we're still putting kids in the class. And I have been asked, I have kids in the district. I have kids that would benefit. I have a an elementary that would get 30 more minutes, a middle school that will get 15, and a high school that will get five. Of course, I've been asked why I wouldn't want that. Of course, I want that. But and the schedule would work better for me as a parent. This schedule would work better for me as a parent. But my job here isn't to do what's best for me as an adult. It's to do what's best for kids. I truly feel that and for having
026kids in a class. I want my kids to be able to have uninterrupted education and right now with behaviors in some classes that's not happening. So that's just my reservations still with the new schedule. I'm glad we've got the preschool figured out until we can answer questions. I just feel we still have questions to answer with this schedule. the just from a math standpoint, um students who miss the same number of days will will be getting more instruction next year than they will be this year. I understand. But what I'm saying is if they're missing an English lesson today that was 30 minutes long or 30 extra minutes, say their reading was 30 extra minutes, then they're missing that extra 30 minutes. So we have kids who are missing whole weeks of school. Okay? So
027now they've missed two and a half extra hours of that reading lesson that they would have got. Do you understand what I'm saying? No. Because be because we're just in we're by increasing the number of minutes of instruction. If I miss 10 days this year, I miss 10 days next year, I'm going to miss more minutes, but I'm also going to receive more instruction. We are You are going to miss more minutes. So, but that's but I'm going to but I'm going to receive more instruction and that's going to raise So, our kids are going to miss more time though also. So, we already have a chronic absentee problem. So, now we're going they're going to miss more minutes. I guess I I I guess I don't I I I see it differently. Yeah. that
028that I guess by the way by the way you're describing it the the way to keep kids from missing time would be reduce the school day because then they wouldn't miss as much I mean that that I'm just I'm I'm being I'm being ridiculous to a point I understand I'm saying if you have a first grader who they are missing a whole they missed a whole week of reading an extra 30 minutes of that reading is going to be I guess it's more in elementary that it is a bigger deal because it is 30 minutes. 30 minutes and that that's a lot of time to miss for in a lesson in my mind. As a teacher teaching a first grade lesson, if I have a kid that has missed a whole week, that's two and
029a half extra hours of learning that they've lost. Right. Can I But every other week, they're getting an extra two and a half. Yeah. But Oh, yeah. Can I Oh, go ahead. But I'm going to be crazy. So you want to I just think when I look at that, it's like it's like opportunity. You You're giving more opportunity for for education. I Why Why would I not want the opportunity? And I I've been asked that. I've as been asked that why I wouldn't want that for my kids. Of course I do. But the behaviors right now until we get them under control, I just feel that putting an extra 30 minutes isn't I think I think those are separate issues. I I really I really think they're I mean behavior is an issue by itself.
030Attendance is an issue by itself%. Do we have to sol Yeah, we we need to work on that. We need to solve that. Okay. I mean, you can't educate anyone if they're not in school. Okay, I I understand that, but but not offering this, I I still think that, you know, I mean, it it's more opportunity to be successful. Washington. Uh, can we um do something a little uh crazy and if there is any would you guys be open to opening up the floor for 15 20 minutes to get feedback um from any of the educators in the room that might have feedback before we vote on this issue? I think we had the first hearing of the public and didn't get any. We we did um but uh I don't think it would harm
031anything if we would do so. I'm going to defer to more veteran hands than I Dr. Ballard. I is this I thought they did. Okay. Okay. Here's what we're going to do. I need a motion to suspend the order. So moved. Second. Roll call. Mrs. Washington. Mrs. Nazario. Yes. Mr. Ferguson. Yes. Dr. Val. Yes. Mr. Sturgil. Yes. Now I need a motion to Nobody's going to second hearing. We don't need We don't need a motion to go just Okay. Second hearing of the public. And if I could ask please and I think that the meeting about six weeks ago, um, this is not aimed at anyone in person. Um uh people talked about children in a way that could have been interpreted as disparaging to our children and to their families. So just please choose
032your words carefully. And they were recognizable. Yes. Yes. The parents called back and said you were talking about my kid. Okay. Um started a timer 15 minutes like two minutes if you just give a quick I will be very quick. Lindsay Lisha I'm a teacher at Helensteiner Rice. I guess I'm just confused because we're supposed to meet as a union and I know with Ross tomorrow to talk about this stuff. So, I didn't realize you guys were voting on it before we were talking as a union. So, to me, this is this I wasn't prepared. I had a bunch of stuff from teachers in the building that had questions and not just for preschool because I know we already went over this and I appreciate the outcome of that, but for everybody else, they had
033concerns. I have a couple emails that people wanted me to ask of you guys and I didn't know this was being voted on today. I thought it was after the meeting with the building representatives. Yeah, tomorrow's for staff uh start n times not students. So, and I don't think we realized that. I don't think that was something that since you didn't hear from from the public, I guess. So, I just I'm concerned about that since teachers did have questions staff. Yeah. So, I don't think I think adding the additional 30 minutes at the end of the day for elementary school is like Courtney said, that's more opportunity for behaviors. And if we don't have that plan, which I haven't seen, um I'm a part of the behavior review board and I was a part of
034the behavior meetings for a while. I'm not sure where that went, but we haven't seen anything. Attendance is terrible. So, getting that under control first, I think, would be a great idea before we expend extend the amount of time that the kids are going to be in class. But that's all I have to say, I guess. Thank you. Uh Julie Garcia, LEA President. Um yeah, one of the things that we did question was the start times for the staff. So we are having a meeting tomorrow. We have one representative from each building to speak with Ross and we're going to talk about that. And then back to the behavior group. Um we have been working on that. We are working on flowch chart like Dr. program spoke about um because one of the things that
035was lacking is communication. Um we have all these services but we just don't know how to access them. So we're working on getting that information out. We haven't put anything out yet because there really isn't anything to put out yet. We're still working. But I do have a question. Courtney, I agree with you. Um adding time at the end of the elementary day does extend, you know, the opportunity for things to happen. But I do have to wonder, you you identified that um behavior is a problem. We're working on that. You've identified that attendance is a problem, but I've been to a lot of board meetings and there has been no discussion about attendance, about any suggestions about what to do. Um so, is that going to be something that's going to be addressed? Because
036we're addressing times, we're addressing um behaviors, but attendance is also something that hasn't been addressed. So, I put it to the board, you know, what what is it that's going to be addressed? if something's gonna be addressed about attendance. Hi, I'm Katie Bellamero. I'm an eighth grade teacher in the district and um kind of to Courtney's point, we have students who are chronically late and I'm talking five days a week, probably missing first and most of second period. Adding 15 minutes onto our beginning of our day, they're still going to be missing those 15 minutes at the beginning of the day, four to five days a week. Um, I can probably name at least 10 10 kids between a couple of eighth grade classes on our team that we're speaking of. So, the 15 minutes
037for them, they're still missing it. It's not changing the kids that we really need to reach that are chronically absent and failing multiple classes. Mr. Ross, can you please put the start time on the Thank you. I I do have a question for this open period as people continue to come up um and you requested educators to speak. Is that all educators? Yeah, of course. Okay. Can I come? Hi Gina. Um I'm Gina Duri. I've taught in this district 27 years and currently I'm third grade at Admiral King. And my question is you if that our instruction is beginning at 8:15, it begins at 8 o'clock. We have kids coming in our room working at 8:00. So I don't know why it says 8:15. That's instructional time when the tardy bell rings. So when buses,
038but then why am I teaching from 8 to 8:15? I'm doing it. How many people here are doing it? I mean, we're there. The kids are there. We have work out for them. We're they're doing things. I mean, if that's the case, then that they shouldn't be coming in our room till 8:15. I mean, because for me, that's planning. I plan every day for what I'm doing. My bell ringer, what they're going to be doing. There's always something on their desk. You can come in at any time. They're not just walking around in circles or something. We don't do breakfast in the room anymore. That's done in the cafeteria. So, they're coming in at 8:00. They're sitting down. They're getting to work. So, we have an additional 15 minutes a day right there. And I
039just think with I do dismissal every day for free. I don't get paid. I do dismissal and I'll be the first to say I won't be doing dismissal anymore because we dismiss at 2:30. At 2:55 we have between 15 to 20 kids sitting in our gym still waiting to go home. And Courtney sees it and we're standing there with them. That's my time I'm giving up. So, there is no way that we could possibly not have more time added to our day, which you say we're not going to do, and release at 3:00 and have teachers go home at 3:15. Virtually impossible. And how many, excuse me, how many teachers help with dismissal at Admiral King on a given day to make dismissal and there's no way. And then you have all the teachers who
040do the afterchool clubs which are so amazing from chess club to um gym club um student council all those things. If these teachers have to wait to begin until that time I can tell you right now all those clubs will be gone because a lot of those teachers live in Parma. I mean our piano teacher she lives out in Cleveland area. They're not going to stay another they're just not going to do it. There will be no one that'll volunteer for that. And I mean, you say about stipens and everything, but it comes out to be like $300, $400 after taxes and everything else they take out. People are not going to do that. So maybe our kids are getting a few minutes extra, but really they're going to lose out on a whole lot
041more. They really are. But I But that was my biggest thing when I saw 8:15. No, we start at 8. So if we're going to go to 8:15, our kids should not be coming in our room then till 8:15. Thank you. Is that my question is is that at every building elementary building that's when the ty bell rings. What's that? That's when the tardy bell rings. What is when the tardy bell rings? 8 8:15 is when the tardy bell rings. So what time do the buses arrive? 8 8:00 is when the Okay. So 7:30 at 7:4. Yeah. I mean, we're all working at 8:00. Kids are in our room. Yeah. Kids are in our room. We are supervising them. I mean, it's that seems like it's a problem to me that we don't have a
042consistent So, one of the one of the things that this helps address is is the time, the start time, and the end time with transportation in the middle. So, if you look now at LHS dropping off at 7:10 and then elementary at 8:00, they have time right away to get to the elementary routes and some uh do drop off early. We're shorten it now though, right? And so that should help with that early drop off on the back end. Uh to to Gina's point about dismissal, we are scheduled not to be successful right now with dismissal with ending at 2:15 at the high school to dismiss and then elementary 15 minutes later. We we need 30 minutes in between. We have 15 right now. So we we are scheduled to have a problem with our
043dismissal between um the high school and the elementary dismissal. And all these things help with the transportation part. But Gina, to your point, where have we went? Oh, here we are. Um, uh, to your point that after school stuff, uh, sometimes there are delays and we would have to look at potentially doing stipens for dismissal, which we've done in the past. Well, and and I'm going to say pre before school as well, if we're if we're if we're using uh planning time to supervise children, you know, there something needs to be developed there, no matter what schedule we're on. Um just so long time principal um did a lot of middle school time and I know middle school and elementary is different u but I do want to say like from our spectrum um we
044would have kids let's say our tardy bell was at 9:00 kids would be in the school at 8:50 sometimes I was in the cafeteria with them at 8:30 so kids started getting to classes at 8:50 that was the thing that we all knew. Some would be at their lockers, some would be um in the classroom at that point. We had breakfast in the classroom. They would be eating breakfast. Everyone was on a a rotating in and out. Teachers had themselves in the doorway kind of looking. We had So, I think we can get to the root of what's going on at the elementary a little differently. Um kids showing up at 8:00 to to what I believed was the practice of what I've seen in some places. Yeah. they they are getting to the classroom
045but that you know I've seen doors close at 8:15 to say all right this is you know it's not an open entry into the building then you have to sign in to the main office so I have seen that practice um at many schools and I know I've been known to kind of be around uh in the mornings so you know I would like to say I can see that practice um happening now I admire and and applaud folks that would say hey I've got this time these kids are here I'm going to start the day. That's kudos. So, I don't want to seem as though like that's not an appropriate thing or a thing that's frowned upon. The reality is the the main office are closing doors at 8:15 relative to the tardy piece.
046Now, we can change that, but there's still going to be that time from when students get into the building to when they get into the classroom. And we have to make sure that we're accounted for that. So if instruction begins at 8:15, we can't just open the doors at 8:15. Got to open them early. So they can do all those things. And I know it's a little bit longer probably at the elementary piece than it is at the middle and high. But I I guess I need to hear a little bit more about what's going on in particular buildings because everything I've seen tardy doors are closing at 8:15 and that's when they're starting. Um, but I think it's a little different. Hold on. Excuse me. Gina, come back to the mic so that it's
047on the audio. I just think it's a little bit different in a middle school because they're like teenagers. I mean, what are you going to do with a seven-year-old? You have to be doing activities with them and teaching them. You know what I'm saying? Like, I know in middle schools and high school, they get two to three minutes for whatever it is to change classes, shut the door, you're done. But that's not what it's like in an elementary school. I mean, we're meeting them at the door. We have We get them in there. We're starting them on work. I mean, our title one teacher, she's getting them at 8:00 in the al co's already teaching them to get all her classes in. So, I just don't think we I feel like we should add that
04815 minutes in for instructional time. And then, you know, you add that 15 minutes in for instructional time, you could technically go to 2:45 instead of three. Then you still get your half hour at the end of the day to release kids because I mean, I do believe that we are teaching at 8. We have I've had um speech therapists in my room at 8. I've had spec teachers in my room at 8. I've had all of them because they need to get their minutes in in the m in the day. And so that's they're there. They're taking the kids. They're learning. I mean, that is our instructional time. So, I just think that it's I I think coming from someone who's taught grades kindergarten through 8th, there's such a huge difference between the little
049people and the big people. I mean, you can't leave them alone for 5 seconds. You have to constantly be doing something with them. My teaching partner, she has centers going as they're coming in. They are trained. They know exactly which center to go to, what to do. I mean, they're learning. And we tell parents this all the time at conferences. When your kids 5 10 minutes late, it's not a no big deal. They're losing instruction time. So, I mean, that's just what we do there, I guess. Hi, Karen Rossy. Um, kindergarten teacher Tony Morrison. Um, I think on paper extending the day sounds fantastic and like it's a no-brainer, but elementary, I agree with everything Gina said. We are in our rooms. We are prepared and we are teaching. Whether it's social skills, whether it's
050pen to paper, whether it's centers, we are there and the kids are getting educated one way or the other in elementary. We can't leave them alone. And it hasn't worked where they all go to the cafeteria and eat breakfast. That hasn't worked in years in elementary schools. Um, again, it just seems we want quality over quantity. And I agree with what Courtney was saying. They are little kiddos and their behavior is very, very important in their social skills. right now. I mean, we're all the elementary teachers I know are busting their behinds to teach them the proper way to get along with kids and to be a team player and we're struggling as we all know. Um, and another thing is I have taught in another district and for elementary teachers in other districts, most
051of them there are pair of professionals that take the kiddos out for recess. In Lorraine City Schools, we take our kids out for recess. It's one-on-one. I mean, I'm in charge of my 26 kids. We don't double team. We don't do anything like that. In other districts, I know it was always a parah. So, I had extra prep time. And I don't know how as a teacher we can effectively with high quality teach a half hour every day extra but lose a half hour prep time. We are not middle school. We are not high school. We are elementary. And what we do is quick, fast. We do 10-minute centers, 10-minute activities. I don't ever eat a lunch every day at all because I teach kindergarten. So, I'm prepping for my math centers during my lunchtime.
052So, I think what on paper, yes, it sounds great. Let's keep the kids here longer. But in reality for elementary, I feel like it's not going to be quality and we're already struggling as we know with high class sizes. Um, and this and it's all about the students. What is best for the students? Thank you. Hi, Barb Bowman. I'm a high school teacher, 10th grade. And I know we don't hear a lot from the high school. There isn't that many big changes right now, but um from the high school, from what has been told to me and asked to bring here is they're concerned about the sports that we are now traveling much further than we ever have and now we're going to be getting out later. And if you want more time with buses,
053shouldn't we be leaving at 2:15 instead of 2:30? Because the kids who leave to go to these sporting events miss their entire last period now. So every they can't miss that many last periods. We don't rotate and teach something else during the last period. So if you have math and you're in two or three sports, you're going to be missing a lot of class and a lot of instruction time. And the other thing I wanted to bring up is that does happen in the high school, too. They release the kids at 7:15 in the morning and we don't start till 7:25. So, and they have 10 minutes to roam the hallways or do whatever they do. They also release them from lunch more than five minutes early. So, I have to be back at least
054five minutes early for lunch and we're already only given 25 minutes instead of a half an hour. So, the times that those things happen need to be addressed. And I know in the high school they've already addressed trying to stagger the lunches and I know something's in place, but um I agree with a lot of the things that are being said here that it's really hard to know what goes on if you're not there. So, thank you for listening to us. We appreciate it. Thank you. All right. I've had two questions um sent to me. The first one is if we are contracted to work the 7 hours and 35 minutes, if we discuss if we dismiss at 3:00, that only gives us 15 minutes to get our rooms cleaned up and dismissal. So, who
055would be doing dismissal, which apparently we're going to talk about tomorrow, but that's one that I said I would read. Next one is when we do C3T meetings, RTI meetings, ETR meetings, elementary teachers are already strapped for time. When should we do those meetings? I did ask that question and you said that they get in their contract you have to do one a month. Is that correct? You told one what? I think it's one a month. So that's one a week. One a week. That's what I meant. That's what I meant. You see three teams, one a week. No. Well, I'm saying Yeah. Right. So, let each each group has a different requirement. Uh, well, I'm at the I met the teacher one was one a week. So, I think the concern is that right
056now elementary we're in at 7:40, kids come at 8:00, kids come at 7:40. I'll be honest, in my room, especially in school, you have to get them. Yeah. Um, and then we're only there till 3:15. And if if we're dismissing at 3, that gives us 15 minutes. So no matter what day of the week we're expected to do C3T meetings, then we wouldn't have enough time. And then ETR meetings and RTI meetings and IEP meetings, if that's not something that we have a chunk of time to do, those are an hour. When would we be expected to do that? Would that be our planning time? Do we time card for that? How does that look? I know we're not jumping into everyone, but those were questions. So I'm seeing I'm seeing Mr. May write those
057down. And I assume from the meeting tomorrow want us to answer. I Yeah, I do because I think that this is going to end up costing the district money. I've heard a couple of things. I'm sorry. Quickly because this is my question. I've asked this question and I really didn't get an answer. I was told that we would have two teachers that would be that would get uh supplemental for dismissal. Okay. If eight do it now safely because you have a front door and a back door and you have a there's no way two could do it. at least the way where my kids go to school and elementary too couldn't do it. But that's going to be that's going to cost us money. If teachers are going to have to time card for IEP
058meetings, if we're taking away their plan time at the end of the day, we can't expect to take away their plan time in the Well, Mr. I want to respectfully so contract defines what plan time is and each level they have a loted amount of plan time that occurs during the instructional day is what our our contract language speaks to. So right the the debate here is more so about who owns the time when students are not receiving instruction and what's the responsibility of staff. I think we've kind of engaged in that conversation and that's one that I I've been a teacher now and 23 years I think that's been a conversation 23 years I've been around. um and dismissal. This is an interesting piece um because honestly I haven't had and I've been a
059principal in this district for a while. I haven't had to have a a battle about what happens for dismissal um whether it was keeping the hallways making sure your secondary making sure your hallway was clear or if I asked someone to come outside like and this is different district too. like I was able to sign people spots when I was in Oberlin and I saw the same thing happen again. So here's your spot, here's your spot. It was a responsibility. It wasn't a So there was duty language that's in the contract. There's planning periods in the contract. So I think that we need to really make sure that people are getting what they need according to the contract and recognize that there have been some times where there where other parts of the day were
060not managed. But does that necessarily mean that management didn't have the rights to say, "Here's some things that can be done." I use those terms just because we were talking contract. Um, honestly, um, healthy spaces interact differently than unhealthy spaces. So, I guarantee if we were to go across the district and have different conversations with folks, there are some folks that are doing dismissal like you said, right? um without necessarily having to be prodded or assigned. They see a need, there's conversation with the admin and they figure it out. That's how I've operated all my years as a president. Mr. Scott, really quick to interrupt you. They are right now. That's what she's saying they are. But if it the day ends at 3:00, dismissal is not done in 15 minutes. So then they would
061be working for free. And I don't think we should expect our teachers to work for free. I don't expect anybody to work for free in this district. So if that's what they're saying is and that's when I had talked to Jeff about this is and he agreed and he said that we would give like two two teachers per district could per school could get a supplemental for this. Yeah. But it t what I'm saying is it takes more than two. And while our teachers right now are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts every day, yes, during their time where they could be in their room cleaning up, getting ready for the next day, they're taking a half hour a lot of days to do it. That was my question. And they are
062doing our our dismissal will be a lot cleaner at elementary because again, right now we dismiss at 2:15 at the high school and it is impossible to do the route in 15 minutes and then be at the elementary school at 2. Those are just buses. Those are just buses. Well, and I think I think there's a part of this conversation too where we can and can continue to ask our families to help us level up. Change doesn't happen if we stay grounded in the status quo. So, we've recognized that one, our staff does a hell of a job with our kids. Two, they're caring and this environment is conducive for our students. three, some of our students come in the gaps and we've been a value added district. So every year they're with us, we've
063shared that data. So you combine all those things, the human element in me says, why wouldn't we try and then recognize that every time that there's been an issue with things, we've brought people to the table and we've helped we tried to problem solve. No one on this table has run away from having the conversation with folks and trying things. That is the nature of continuous school improvement. We aren't where we want to be, but man, if we could just lean in and try something different. And in this case, we're saying our students more time with us would benefit. And I understand the argument around the attendance and and those pieces. another cry to our community, a call to action to say, "Bring your babies to school. Help us. Help them." If we continue to
064live in a in a deficit place, we can never see the assets of the students and the families that are there. Because while we might have 52 to 54% right now that are chronically abs, there's 48% that also are not. So, I brought up the contract earlier. The conversations have been a lot about, you know, can we do this without violating because we do respect the employees and their rights and and what's bargained and negotiated. And I think anytime that it's come up that we've been able to have conversations and reach resolutions and sometimes those resolutions have to go through multiple layers, but that's what a contract is built for to ensure that there's a process in place for these things. So I would ask everyone to consider is this a violation? Are we the
065place where our students are benefiting because of the expertise that we have? And then can we commit to to continuously analyzing and being in this place where continuous school improvement is the norm and not the exception? Like it that's is what I'm asking for all of us to consider as we have these conversations. not invalidating any points along the way, but our children and our our staff are are asking for more. We've we've been in this place where we've asked for more and we've asked for different things. Trying something different here. I'll go back to when we were in CO. We didn't think we could do what we did then. We got together, we listened, we talked together. Was it perfect? No. But was that in a constant state of improvement along the way? Yes,
066at the end of the day, we were asked to keep staff and students as safe as possible. We met that challenge collectively. That's the ask again for this. We can continue and go down a list of why it can't happen or why it can't work. But can we also say why it can happen and why it can work and then look at the benefits that our students would gain from if it did work if we just dreamed a little bit differently and it did work and maybe kids do come to school more. Maybe the behaviors do go down because guess what? We've got more time to work on the SEAL components. Our counselors have more time with students maybe. But when have we just closed our minds to things and said, "No, it can't happen."
067If that was the case, we would have never did remote learning for as long as we did. We would have came back full-time because we couldn't do that. I think but we stood up and we showed out. Y'all stood up and you showed up and it made it happen. That's my only I agree. I mean, I agree with you. And I think as a board we have been very supportive and not didn't I mean the music and it has worked great. Um, and it has and we've supported. This is just something that we have questions. Staff has questions and I have asked you didn't bring them to the table. You didn't bring them. You say like you didn't bring elementary teachers. We surveyed every survey, right? But we talked to preschool. We surveyed preschool teachers
068too, but you brought the preschoolers teachers to the table and we were able to see we had some questions to still answer. I never want to throw anyone under the bus. Um, so I won't I just think that there they're there are representatives for a reason and often times communication is had there and if people don't get the answers that they want through that representation, it's hard to say we haven't listened or we haven't leaned in. Sometimes people aren't going to like the answers that they get. So the answer to this question then what what should I tell this person about doing all the meetings? Will that be time carded during their planning period? Yeah, I I'll answer the C3 one because that's an easy one. Contract speaks to how we can have if it's
069not during the plan time during the day. There's two we have our obligated a staff meeting in which 40 minutes have been allocated for professional learning communities. That's how we would continue if it couldn't happen during the school day. No different than once a week. It's I think it says in contract currently Tuesdays, but once again healthy relationships within a particular building, you might say Wednesdays or Thursday depending on the healthiness of said building and then conducting IEP meetings and ETR meetings. No, don't get that now. If it goes beyond the school day, we encourage you card. It happens all the time now. So it will go beyond the school day then because I don't know any IEP meetings that are ever done in 15 20 minutes. So then is that something that we would
070time card for? Yes, we do that now. Okay. I just want to I just want to be able to give answers because if we have 20 minutes at the beginning of the day and 15 minutes at the end of the day, I'm not going to call a parent back and it's very hard to get, you know, a whole team of people together in 20 minutes to try to do a meeting and then meet back at the end of the day for 15 minutes to do the meeting. So if we're time carding, I just want to be able to give answers. So I think there is a belief out there. I could hear the the rumblings um that some folks may not have time carded. Um once again, I would ask you to speak to your
071various representatives and say if you are asked to do a test that is and I mean it's conversation, folks. I I and then principal if the principal didn't know, they would then reach out to their supervisor and ask the question and then that's kind of how the the process would work. But to just say I didn't do it and I wasn't offered the opportunity to do it. Okay, then we need to lean in there. But I I haven't seen that. Can I bother one second? And you've been amazing. Um I just want to say thank you for um for being amazing when I'm not. Um we have um met our 30 minutes. I just wanted to say it and of course I want to listen to everybody but I just wanted to say that so
072you don't accuse me of doing wrong stuff like I usually do. Thank you. Let Thank you. Let's ask these last two people to be brief and we'll hear them. Marbansick. I'm a teacher in the district. Uh thank you for hearing us out. I do think there was a communication uh between tomorrow's meeting today. So I think that's why everyone wanted to speak out. Um I'm lucky enough that I work with K12 teachers. I'm a cast member, so I go to all 14 buildings. I talk to a lot of teachers on the daily basis. Um, so I'm going to go real quickly each grade band. Uh, high school, I think Miss Bowman answered some questions. The five minutes isn't really a whole lot of a change. I think it's the shift of change and the new
073schedule that's more of a concern there. Um, so I'm not going to comment too much on the high school. Miss Bowman, I think, already spoke to that. Um, middle school, that's my true heart and home. Uh, the 15 minutes, once again, I don't think the staff is really like 15 minutes. that's going to make a huge thing in our day. Uh the major concern that I heard like Miss Nazario said was the behavior issues, more time with the students, more behavior issues until those are under control. Um there's a lot of worries with that. Um the also other one is the highintensity tutoring that this 15 minutes is supposed to allow. Um Michael Scott, I might be wrong, but this is more like Titan time where like a 30 minute interval at some point. uh
074working in the middle school that time sometime was used wonderfully by teachers and other times it was like a study hall. So my real concern with that extra 15 minutes is how that time is going to be structured and um evaluated I guess. I don't know if that's proper terms how it's going to be made sure that it's used for high intensity. Uh by definition high intensity is like small groups not like classes of 30 35 for 30 minutes. Um, so that's the middle school concern that I've heard. Elementary planning time, contractually wise, I believe it's 45 minutes. Um, same as middle school, but elementary, remember, you have to walk the kids to their itinerate, you have to walk them back. That takes 10 minutes. Uh, lunch, they walk them down, walk them back. Elementary
075I think gets the least amount of plan time out of all the district which as a middle school teacher I was not aware of that until I was in this role on how much that is kind of abused. So that time before and after school is really crucial. Adding that half hour takes half hour away from their time to set up their lessons, their learning centers, making the cute little arts and crafts things for all their kids. So that I know is a huge concern, but I think we have enough elementary staff that spoke on that. So that's all I thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you. Julie Garcia. Um, so I have a question. If we include the 8 o'clock time into our minutes for the elementary, that adds 15 minutes that
076weren't accounted for. then we could only add 15 minutes at the end of the day, which would be like a a bit of a compromise because in the elementary building when I left the elementary classroom, kids got their breakfast, came in, they were in my classroom at 8:00 and we were working. They were eating breakfast and they were working or they were working. So, the ladies are right. They do start at 8 o'clock. So, can we include that into our our time and actually count those minutes? That would make our time ending time maybe 15 minutes earlier that's gives the people back some time at the end of the day to prepare all those things and clean up our rooms you know I mean wiping down things and picking up and throwing away just a
077suggestion I make a motion to get back on With all that being said, we are right back where we were to 11.01. Correct. And if I could, Mr. President, um, based on a couple of questions, and I never want to be accused of not working and and uh, listening to others and coming up with better solutions. Um, I am willing to pull this for this meeting and put it on the next board meeting um, and get you the answers that you need and the answers that they deserve. Thank you. That saves me asking him to do so. Um, so with that, we have any new business? Committee reports and requests from board members. Our next board meeting will be May 27th, which I believe is not a Monday because of Memorial Day. So, it will
078be a special meeting on May 27th. Those of you that tune in to the whole series, mark your calendars. [Music] Uh, and at that with that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. support. Roll call, please. Mrs. Nazario, yes. Mr. Surgel, yes. Mr. Ferguson, yes. Mrs. Washington, yes. Dr. Ber, yes. And again, I just want to thank everybody for your cander. I want to thank everybody at this table. Um, and again, we clearly don't always agree on everything, nor should we. You probably heard me say it before. If every board member is supposed to agree with every other board member, we only need need one. And if they always agreed with me, we wouldn't need any. So again, I appreciate the fact we can have a healthy conversation, not necessarily agree on every point, uh,
079but at the end of the day, hopefully come up with more information and get to a point where we can make make some decisions. So I'm just saying thank you.